Weather
Introduction The weather system is a new feature, unique to SWR. During play, there will be an indicator and timer at the top of the screen, between the two player's health bars. This will indicate either the current weather condition or the next weather condition to occur, and the timer shows the amount of time before a weather change occurs. The current weather affects several aspects of play. When the indicator is black, there is no weather effect (clear weather). The timer will count up to 100, where it will then change the weather to whatever was currently displayed in the indicator and then begin to count downwards. Real-time duration of the timer, barring knockdowns, is approximately 16.5 seconds for clear weather and 33 seconds for inclement weather. Manipulating Weather When the weather timer reaches 50 during clear weather, the indicator will switch to a new random weather type, but the weather will not activate until the timer reaches 100. During this time (anywhere between 50-100), if either player is knocked down or is slammed against a wall the weather indicator will cycle to the next weather type. In Hisoutensoku there is no "clear weather" period - the predicted weather will start at 0 timer. Picking up the little red Crystal chips, which are gained by hitting your opponent that has bullets on the screen, or knocking them down, will decrease the weather timer, shortening the current weather condition. If it is currently clear weather, the weather timer will increase, bringing on the next weather faster. If Temperament Manifestation is used during clear weather (between timer 50-100), the weather will instantly change to whatever weather type was on the indicator at the time. If it is used during an active weather, the timer will drop to zero very fast, ending current weather. You have some invulnerability frames when using this card. So, in layman's terms, to use this card you would want to wait until clear weather is anywhere above 50, then activate the card to change to the weather that is displayed in the indicator. If the weather is not the one you want, knock your opponent down or wallslam them to cycle through the possible weather conditions in the indicator. Once you cycle to one you want, activate the Weather Card to change the weather immediately. You may wonder, why not just let the timer run and become that weather without the card -- well, activating the card prevents the risk of the indicator cycling to a new weather from another knockdown or wallslam, before the timer maxes out. Also, this card is a must for life saving purposes, like ending a Typhoon weather when you are low on life. In Story Mode, this card is only used to activate the weather effects given for the stage you are on for a limited period of time. In Hisoutensoku, using the Sword of Hisou to activate a weather will activate it with the maximum time (99) regardless of it's normal timer value. Weather Bonus This is also the cycle weather conditions go through when a player is knockdown or wallslammed. For example, if the randomly chosen weather during 50-100 timer is Azure Sky, and a player gets knocked down, the weather will be changed to Hail. The following list is the order in which weathers are cycled (in training mode, Northern Lights and Evening Sky are inaccessible). Clear Weather left :Character: None :Color: None (grey). :Effects: No effects until the timer reaches 100. Sunny left :Character: Associated with Reimu :Color: White :Effects: Border Escapes are free, flight cost is halved, turning radius during flight is decreased. Drizzle left :Character: Associated with Marisa :Color: Blue :Effects: Spellcard Damage increases. Cloudy left :Character: Associated with Sakuya :Color: White :Effects: Decreases spell card cost by 1, increases rate at which spell gauge is gained. Blue Sky left :Character: Associated with Youmu :Color: White :Effects: Allows special attacks to cancel into other special attacks. Hail left :Character: Associated with Alice :Color: Blue :Effects: Spirit Orb Recovery speed is doubled, increases damage of bullet-type specials. Spring Haze left :Character: Associated with Patchouli :Color: White :Effects: Completely disables all normal melee attacks (pushing the A button results in no action), though special moves with melee properties are not disabled. Spirit refills without any delay after firing bullets or using special moves. Heavy Fog left :Character: Associated with Remilia :Color: Red :Effects: Causes Vampirism. Melee damage inflicted will be partially transferred to the attackers lifebar. Blocked melee damage also causes vampirism. Snow left :Character: Associated with Yuyuko :Color: Blue :Effects: Blocking or being hit will drain your SpellCard Gauge meter. If the meter for a slot is reduced past full you will lose the currently selected/active card. Sunshower left :Character: Associated with Yukari :Color: Red :Effects: Melee attacks blocked wrongly will force an instant guard crush. Guard crushed orbs recover much faster. Sprinkle left :Character: Associated with Suika :Color: Blue :Effects: Causes all skillcards (special moves) to act like level 4 (maxed) power level for the duration of the weather. Tempest left :Character: Associated with Aya :Color: Blue :Effects: Maximum Airdashes/Flys allowed increased by one, characters can high jump cancel (HJC) their melee attacks. Certain melee attacks can only be HJCed after a hit. Others can be HJCed after hitting or being blocked. Mountain Vapor left :Character: Associated with (Reisen?) :Color: White :Effects: Hides Spellcards in your reserve (replacing the image with a "?" mark). River Mist left :Character: Associated with Komachi :Color: Blue :Effects: Causes players to be forced away from each other (like polar ends of a magnet). If players are far away from each other they will be dragged toward each other, effectively normalizing the distance between them. Typhoon left :Character: Associated with Iku :Color: Blue :Effects: Characters gain superarmor and will not enter hitstun, and also lose the ability to block. Note that if the weather suddenly clears, even in the middle of a rapidly hitting attack, a player being hit and holding the block direction will immediately go into block at the end. Aurora left :Character: Associated with Tenshi :Color: ? :Effects: This weather will cause a random weather effect from the above list. The small text display above the timer will say Aurora in Japanese, but when the weather changes the game will display the actual weather effect chosen with larger Japanese text below the timer. In other words, this weather is unpredictable until the actual weather shift. Twilight left :Character: Associated with Tenshi (story mode only?) :Color: ? :Effects: ? Hisoutensoku Weather New Weather :Calm left ::Character: Sanae ::Effects: First character to land a hit will gain a spotlight. That character will regenerate life until the weather ends or until the character with the spotlight is hit which will cause ownership of the healing spotlight to switch. If somehow both characters are in a juggle state (got hit at the same time) and the weather activates, the first to tech gains the spotlight. :Diamond Dust left ::Character: Cirno ::Effects: Left/Right ground tech disabled. Characters take damage from standing up. :Sand Storm left ::Character: Meirin ::Effects: All hits will induce counter hit state. Juggled/hitstunned characters do not take counterhits. :Scorching Sun left ::Character: Utsuho ::Effects: Power increase when high in the air. Lose life gradually when high in the air. :E.Asian Rain left ::Character: Suwako ::Effects: Attacks will induce ground/wallslam. Groundslam can be teched out of, allowing for easy recovery (or followups) on moves that ordinarily knockdown. Groundslam 'height' increases with the distance fallen. Old Weather Changes :River Mist ::Effects: Now oscillates the characters back and forth periodically instead of moving to a fixed distance apart. :Mountain Vapor ::Effects: Hides spellcards and spellcard deck is reshuffled. Players will be treated as having five cards while hidden regardless of how many they had before or how many cards remain in the deck - they will be replaced with random cards from the deck. If a card is used while hidden, the weather ends. If a spellcard is initiated during clear weather, but this weather begins before the card is actually used up, then the deck is reshuffled, and whatever the new topmost card is consumed instead, as well as additional cards if the new card is a 2+ cost spellcard. This ends the weather as expected and the spellcard resolves normally. :Tempest ::Effects: Weather duration halved. Non-flight movement (ground dashing, walking, airdashing) is significantly sped up. Melee high jump cancels no longer possible. :Spring Haze ::Effects: Weather duration halved. Forbid melee and instant orb recovery effect replaced by melee grazeable effect. Doing so drains spirit significantly. :Cloudy ::Effects: If either player uses a card, the weather will end. :Blue Sky ::Effects: Every successive special attack canceled into due to the weather will cost half the spirit of the one before it. :Typhoon ::Effects: Weather now starts with 75 seconds on the clock. Will still initiate at 99 as with other weather. :Sunshower ::Effects: Weather now starts with 75 seconds on the clock. Will still initiate at 99 as with the other weathers. Guard crushing now causes a large mass of scarlet orbs to drop, shortening the duration considerably overall. Using the Weather In versus mode, weather effects both players equally, even if a weather card was used to change the weather. However, as mentioned above in the effects list, some characters benefit more than others. Therefor, when fighting against different characters, try to keep in mind how they benefit from the weather.